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Quite often, soon-to-be-married individuals casually address lawyer friends at social events and cocktail parties wondering this very question. They are in love; they almost don’t want to think about it, but the nagging question makes them wonder — and with good reason. The answer — it depends. Here are five circumstances our Pittsburgh asset protection attorneys have found where a prenuptial agreement may be right for you: If you already […]

It is a sad fact the law has not kept pace with the level of attention, money and emotional investment our society has poured into our pets. Pittsburgh family law attorneys will tell you in Pennsylvania divorces, pets are treated merely as property. No best interest analysis is conducted, nor any other process close that could render effectively looking after the welfare of a pet. Indeed, no provision in the […]

Often when clients are progressing through their divorce, it is overwhelming enough to handle the custody, support, asset division and valuation issues, let alone estate issues. All too often during these emotionally charged times, clients request their divorce lawyers to set aside any estate concerns until after the final settlement order of court dividing the assets is entered, which may take a while. Is it worth revising your will while […]

There is often suspicion when a business that would be marital property fails shortly after marital separation, particularly if the owner spouse subsequently starts a new business.  This is the situation that the Superior Court addressed in its recent opinion, Weisman v. Weisman, Nos. 1471 EDA 2014 (July 14, 2015), a non-precedential decision. Husband was the founder of PRN Healthcare Services, a company that provided skilled and non-skilled nursing care in Montgomery […]

According to the old saying, “possession is nine-tenths of the law.” Perhaps that’s true in some context, but in a Pennsylvania divorce decision that was recently published by the Superior Court, possession of a marital home during separation did not dictate the outcome.  In Markle v. Markle, No. 968 WDA 2014 (June 22, 2015)(non-precedential), the marital home was occupied by the wife during the separation period.  During the master’s hearing on […]

In an unpublished decision, the Superior Court has considered the plight of a spouse who entered into a marital settlement agreement thinking that her husband would pursue a gas/oil lease, from which she was entitled to receive a share of the royalties. The Jenkins v. Jenkins decision (No. 1025 WDA 2012, September 26, 2013) arose from a Fayette county case, in which the wife sued the husband for breach of […]